JACK PARKS: A Wild(er) theory about Willy Wonka

The world has lost a legend with Gene Wilder’s passing, and I lost a personal hero. I grew up watching his movies, from the pivotal Mel Brooks comedy classics like “Blazing Saddles,” “Young Frankenstein” and “The Producers” to “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother,” a film made remarkable only by the fact that it is a genre spoof made by and starring the usual Mel Brooks ensemble, yet Mel himself was not involved.

His impeccable comedic timing and unrelenting charm made him a joy to watch, and it seemed like he was really enjoying himself as well. One of the most amazing performances he delivered was in the movie children have loved for more than 40 years: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.

There are several differences between Roald Dahl’s original story and the classic film, not the least of which is the name change to highlight Willy Wonka instead of Charlie. The movie was essentially one gigantic advertisement for Wonka bars and the real-life Willy Wonka candy company, which still produces gobstoppers, nerds and various other unique confections. Tim Burton’s messy “reimagining” was much closer to the original.

But I don’t want to go into the differences. Anyone who’s read and watched either knows what they are. I want to talk about the relationship between Gene Wilder’s Wonka and his Charlie Bucket, and make a proposal that I think most people have never thought of before.

You see, with nerds, it’s not enough to simply watch a movie. You have to analyze the story, pick apart the plot, find individual threads and ask where they lead. If you follow them, you go down paths that can add more depth to a character, greater dimension to the story, or even change the plot.

These paths are known as fan theories, and are different from fan fiction. Fan fiction is allegedly new material starring the same characters, who are often in romantic relationships with one another that deviate from the source material as well as from the socially acceptable norm.

Fan theories, instead, are expository in nature; revealing truths that are hidden within the source material, just waiting for someone to look closely enough to find them.

What does this have to do with Gene Wilder or Willy Wonka?

I believe Willy Wonka is Charlie Bucket’s father, and the son of Grandpa Joe. He left his family out of shame, and the golden tickets are his way of getting back into their lives without causing confusion for Charlie.

Again, I must stress this only applies to the Gene Wilder version. In the original and the Burton version, Charlie’s dad is alive and well. But in the one we all grew up watching, Charlie has no father. We don’t know what happened to him, if he’s alive or dead. He’s never mentioned.

This normally wouldn’t be a big deal; kids in movies have missing parents all the time. But family is clearly important to Charlie, and he lives with his mother as well as both sets of grandparents. He is particularly attached to Grandpa Joe, his paternal grandfather.

Grandpa Joe loves telling Charlie all sorts of things about Willy Wonka because he says he used to work in the factory there. In fact, the factory is so large from the outside that it must have employed hundreds of local workers. The company was quite successful and built a huge reputation world-wide.

Then rival candy companies started stealing his recipes and Wonka laid everyone off while he retreated from the world.

This must have happened either before Charlie was born or shortly afterwards because he doesn’t remember it. It couldn’t have been too long ago, though, because Wonka is still a relatively young man when we meet him later. He looks to be about the same age as Charlie’s mom, in fact.

Charlie’s family is very poor. The grandparents don’t work, despite that Grandpa Joe is well enough to dance around the room when they find a ticket and spends hours on his feet without complaining at the factory. When a large employer lays off workers there are often many families that suffer. However, Charlie is apparently the only kid in town who can’t afford to go to the candy store for even some penny candy, while the other kids are on first name basis with the proprietor.

Everyone else in town must have gotten jobs at the other candy companies years ago, but not loyal Grandpa Joe. Wonka must’ve been an extra good boss to him and him alone, or else there’s some other reason for his loyalty.

The golden tickets provide more evidence. Four go to rotten little kids around the world, and one goes to Charlie. Poor Charlie, who never goes into the candy store and yet the owner somehow knows who he is. The owner literally chooses, selects, and hands him the candybar with the last golden ticket. He then runs home, taking a back alley specifically to avoid strangers, only to be stopped by someone claiming to be Slugworth, owner of one of the aforementioned rival companies who has been seen at the interviews of every other ticket finder.

How does Slugworth know how to get to Charlie’s house, let alone the back way? How does he know Charlie won at all? The other four winners had huge press conferences, so it’s not too hard to figure out how he got there. But Charlie found this ticket only minutes ago, yet Slugworth just happened to be in the neighborhood? He steps out in front of Charlie, so he had been presumably waiting for him there. We later find out that the man purporting to be Slugworth actually works for Willy Wonka, so Wonka at least knew in advance that Charlie was going to get the ticket.

The last evidence comes from Wonka himself. He watches calmly, uncaringly – almost bored – as one by one children get sucked through a pipe into a “fudge room,” swell up until they almost burst and fall into a furnace. He talks casually about putting one into a taffy puller to stretch him out, offering words of encouragement not to the mother, but to the worker concerned about liability.

Yet when Charlie has a couple sips of helium-infused Coke, Wonka accuses him of stealing and goes into an uncharacteristically emotional screaming fit. This type of outburst typically is inspired by those whom we expected to do better and have bitterly disappointed us. But Wonka had supposedly never heard of Charlie before and had no reason to distinguish him from the other kids, so where is this emotion coming from?

Then Charlie places his everlasting gobstopper on the desk before leaving empty handed, Wonka reacts with beaming pride. “My boy,” he cries, “you’ve won! You did it! I knew you would! Forgive me for putting you through this!”

“My boy … forgive me for putting you through this.”

He then tells Charlie in no uncertain terms that he will be the heir to the factory, and that his family doesn’t need to worry about money anymore because they will now live there with Wonka. Whatever you think about my theory, you can’t deny that he is essentially taking on the role of a father at the end.

I believe that though he never mentioned it, Gene Wilder played the part of Willy Wonka as a father trying to reunite with his son while also trying to hide the truth. I think that is why his performance was so spectacular, why it is so popular and why it will continue to live on now after he’s gone. I could be simply overthinking it, and this be nothing more than a fantasy. But as a wise man once said, “We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.”

Jack Parks writes about nerd culture in his column, “Talk Nerdy to Me.”